Brampton councillors begin piecing together missing-projects list

Williams Parkway widening may be among $766M in projects approved and budgeted for as long as 7 years ago, but never completed.

Thestar.com
March 19, 2014
By San Grewal

A Brampton road-widening plan that could cost almost $50 million more than originally budgeted might be just one of hundreds of city projects that were approved as long as seven years ago but never completed.

“Had it started when it was supposed to, it would have cost $44 million” and been completed this year, said Councillor Elaine Moore.

The widening of Williams Parkway, which involves three wards including her own, was put on the capital project list in 2006 and included in the 2008 budget. However, “because it’s actually not starting until this year, now it’s going to cost $92 million and won’t be completed until 2022,” Moore said.

The road plan may be one of 670 delayed or never-started projects mentioned in a staff report that shocked councillors two weeks ago, Moore said. It revealed that $766 million in capital projects approved by council over the past seven years have not been finished or in many cases even begun.

The city says it will not be ready to fully account for the $766 million gap until early April. But some councillors have started to piece together which projects in their wards are probably on the list of projects that taxpayers have already been contributing toward through taxes, possibly for years without seeing any action.

“Loafer’s Lake (recreation centre) - that has been slated for renovations for years, but kept getting pushed back,” said Councillor Paul Palleschi. The project had a price tag of $2 million to $3 million, he said, but staff explained the delay on “a lack of funds.”

Councillor John Sprovieri, who became irate during December budget deliberations when a road widening project in his ward, mandated by council, was put on the deferred list, said that even if there’s a good reason for delays, waiting is costing Brampton taxpayers a lot of money.

“The costs of these (delayed or postponed) projects is going up a lot more than the small amount of interest we’re getting from this money sitting in bank accounts,” Sprovieri said.

It’s unclear if the project delays will actually result in cost increases. Brampton chief administrative officer John Corbett, whom councillors thanked for having the courage to bring the alarming report forward, said the $766 million is not “missing.” Staff have accounted for $62 million of the total, money no longer needed for some projects that’s available to be reallocated. The rest will be detailed as staff identify exactly where the money is and provide explanations for why each of the 670 approved projects was delayed, postponed or scrapped.

Councillor John Sanderson says projects not on the list, such as a new fire department headquarters planned for more than a decade, have also been affected.

“If money has been sitting idle,” he said, “let’s get it to some of these important projects that we thought there was no money for.”